


Networking

by Kona



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: A Coda in between ME1 and ME2, Also meeting her space marine girlfriend, Awkward Ryder, Canon Compliant, F/F, Geeking Out About Prothean Tech, Meeting Your Hero, Morgan Ryder is Bad at People, Self-Indulgent, Shepard functions as arm candy here and nothing else, Torturing Your Twin, When In Doubt Write Self Indulgent BS, alec ryder is a bad dad and morgan has Feelings about it, formal party, no beta we die like men, which is as it should be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kona/pseuds/Kona
Summary: It dawned on Morgan Ryder that somehowTheCommander Eliza Shepard knew her name. She’d have a freak out about that at a later date though.--Morgan Ryder is at an archaeology shindig when two unlikely heroes meet her. She handled it a little less gracefully than she'd hoped.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	Networking

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? A Mass Effect Andromeda fic here? In the lords year 2020? It's more likely than you think! I've been mulled this one over for a while because my Ryder, Morgan, was a huge nerd. And after all the audio tapes with Liara in the game I couldn't just NOT do something in the past where they meet. They put those references to the Normandy Crew in there and I'm going to use them damn it. This slots into that lovely little window between Mass Effect 1 and 2 riiiiight before the Andromeda Initiative really Kicks Off. I missed writing goofy Shepard, and it made me sad that she and my Ryder would never meet. So...Here we are. Enjoy!

Morgan Ryder wasn’t very good at parties. 

Well, that wasn’t  _ entirely _ true.

She was  _ great _ at casual parties. Like the ones to finish a successful dig with where everyone gets drunk and laughs at the inside jokes they’d gained over the weeks. The kind from university that ended in drunken make outs and terrible hangovers in the morning. 

Parties where everyone was worth more credits then she’d ever see? Where servers walked around with champagne flutes and canapes? Where someone was playing a freaking  _ harp? _ Not her scene. She was more of a liability at this parties with her big mouth.

Her twin reminded her  _ constantly _ that her sharp wit usually came off as sarcasm and being an asshole. And, like always, he was right. It wasn’t her fault that she’d inherited their mother’s dry humor and their father’s terrible lack of tack. So while she was great on a dig for her focus and ability to think on her feet, she was terrible at formal parties and salons. At a conference she was better because at least there she had a script and research partners to help her stay on track. 

But formal parties? Just a bad time.

People  _ always _ asked if she was  _ that  _ Ryder. The one related to the woman who helped create implants for the first human biotics. The one whose father was supposedly a ‘hero’ (A citation was needed on that front in her opinion.). What a pedigree! And what was she doing? Digging around in rocks with an Alliance grant that she’s pretty sure she only got because of her name. (She had been horrified to learn her first dig out of college had happened only because the lead researcher wanted her family’s name for clout on the publication.)

There was never any questions about the new Prothean tech she’d dug up, or questions about her last published research study. Nope. Just her family’s many,  _ many  _ accomplishments. It was a nightmare. And it wasn’t like she could use her brother as a shield for questions, boring and diplomatic as he was in conversations, when he was off watching some Mass Relay for trouble. What a nightmare this was.

It’s why this particular day, at this party, Morgan was miserable. Her brother couldn’t beg off and leave his post, her mother was too sick to attend with her, and the less said about her father the better. She couldn’t even be happy that this was the opening of an exhibit she’d contributed three pieces to. It was also the first new scientific exhibit since the attack on the Citadel only a few months ago. 

She should be proud and freely mingling with the elite-people who could fund her next expedition. (If she could convince someone to give her permission to hunt on the backside of  _ Mars, _ God, what could she find?) Instead she was nursing a glass of champagne feeling very uncomfortable in her heels. God, she hated wearing dresses too. Parties like this just brought out the worst in her. 

Meanwhile there was the fact that across the room there was some sort of commotion, which usually meant if she was subtle she could leave early without everyone getting in her way. (She’d apologize to her dig lead later, this was just too much.) She didn’t get far though, before someone called out to her.

“Morgan Ryder?”

It wasn’t a voice she was expecting, and one she certainly didn’t recognize. She turned, a bit sheepish, and then her jaw dropped. Even if the N7 military dress uniform wasn’t enough of a giveaway, anyone who’d watched  _ any _ vid in the past ten years knew how to recognize the woman in front of her. 

The shock of messy red hair, and bright green eyes were a dead on match, as was the small scar running across her cheek mixing in with a smattering of freckles. Tall and effortlessly confident, a grin on her face. Commander Shepard.

It dawned on Morgan at last that somehow  _ the _ Commander Eliza Shepard knew her name. She’d have a freak out about that at a later date though. First she had to make her mouth move. 

“...Yeah?” It was lame, and came out an octave higher than she expected, but she turned to face the woman who’d almost single-handedly saved her home. 

The war hero had the good grace to laugh as she closed the space between them and offered a hand. Morgan took it, dimly aware of what was happening because this must be a hallucination and holy  _ shit _ Leo was going to be so mad that she met his hero before him. 

“You’re the spitting image of your parents, I  _ knew  _ it had to be you! The last time I saw you, you couldn’t have been higher than my hip!”

“We’ve met before?” This time Morgan really did feel stupid, because she’s sure she would have  _ remembered _ that, I mean who wouldn’t remember meeting Commander Shepard?

“Not in a way you’d remember, no,” Shepard shook her head, “I was training for the N7 program, and your father was running one of our modules. I guess you and your brother had a lunch date with him that day. Your mother brought you over to make sure he didn’t forget.”

_ Oh _ . 

Morgan did remember that. She remembered being 8 and wanting nothing to do with the military. Remembered how her mother begged her to just go with Leo and their father to lunch at a replica American Earth Diner on the Citadel. She remembered hating every minute of being in the sterile halls of the training facility. And finally she remembered her father letting her and Leo split a giant ice cream sundae. He even gave in and let her get extra cherries. 

“Your father was a hardass of a trainer, but a good one. That was the only day he ever let us go to mess for lunch early. Cause he was meeting up with you.” Shepard had a fond look on her face, as if it was a purely happy memory. Ryder couldn’t imagine having any purely happy memories of her father. (Even with the ice cream sundae, it’d still mostly been Leo chattering about a soldier series he was watching and their father zoning out and just nodding along.)

“So uh...Commander, what’re you doing here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Oh!” Shepard slapped her own forehead, looking a little sheepish, “Sorry, I’m acting as a plus one for one of my crew mates.”

“You have an archaeologist aboard the Normandy?” Morgan was sure she would have heard of that. That ship was meant to be a lean, mean, fighting machine. It had a pretty slim, if eclectic staff. An old family friend’s son was on it, a turian, if she remembered correctly.

“Technically.” Shepard shrugged, “It’s a little complicated. She’d been acting as our Prothean expert during our last mission. And now, since we’re trying to figure out what caused the attack on the Citadel...It just seems like a good idea to keep her on.” 

“Who is it? Does she have something on display here?” Morgan started to look around for another human who looked like Alliance. Surely it would be someone from the Alliance reserves, in which case she might know them.

“Actually…” It was Shepard’s turn to crane her own neck, looking around, “Ah! She finally escaped from that mob.” She waved an arm at someone behind Ryder, fondness plain on her face. “Hey you, sorry I ditched you back there.” 

Shepard moved around Ryder, which led Ryder to turn herself. And made her promptly gobsmacked again. 

The woman Commander Shepard was currently kissing on the cheek was one of her own research heroes. Morgan had read her last five papers on her previous digs, and had even used some of her published works in her own thesis. She had hoped to be a PhD student under her in a few years time. She was saying something to Shepard, who laughed in turn but Morgan couldn’t believe it. It was Liara T’Soni. 

And here she was on Commander Shepard’s arm, offering her own gloved hand to Morgan with a polite smile. 

“Dr. Liara T’Soni. A pleasure to meet you.”

Morgan took her hand a little jerkily and prayed what was going to come out of her mouth next would be at least somewhat cool. 

“I’m Morgan Ryder-I’m probably your biggest fan. I cited you in my thesis like five separate times.”

(It was not cool.)

Luckily Dr. T’Soni took it in stride. A surprised blink, and then a turn towards Shepard, with a little bit of a smirk on her face.

“I think this is the first time that someone has been more star stuck to meet me than you, Shepard.”

Morgan panicked at that.

“Not that you aren’t great, Commander Shepard, it’s just-I specialize in Prothean archaeology and I saw your guest lecture at Citadel University when I was in undergrad Dr T’Soni and you have such a clear grasp on what their culture appeared to be,” Morgan tried to slow herself down but it was all coming out now, “And I was going to apply to your research student program in the next few years and I’m rambling and I’m just gonna shut up now.”

Ryder’s face felt a furnace. She couldn’t imagine how red she must be. 

Shepard did laugh this time, nearly doubled over. 

“You’re right. It is. She was more embarrassed that I caught her trying to leave than star struck.” She looked positively delighted. She bestowed another kiss to Liara’s cheek, and let her go, “I’ll go run interference and you can both talk shop. I’ll be lost anyways.” She walked off with a small wave and a goofy smile on her face. Morgan hazarded a glance at Dr. T’Soni’s face, which had a small blush, and an absolutely besotted look on her face. 

Morgan considered herself a smart woman, so she at least had the tack to not ask how Dr. T’Soni had managed to get a Jarhead to fall for her. (Her mother had fallen for her father after all, so sometimes miracles did happen.) She waited for Dr. T’Soni to actually look her way again before even trying to talk to her.

“So you serve on the Normandy now?”

“For the time being. I’m taking a sabbatical for the next school year at Serrice to help Commander Shepard with her mission. I’m technically considered a consultant to the Alliance payroll system.” The doctor smiled a little ruefully, “But as far as they’re concerned, I shouldn’t have any access to any information on the ship.”

“That’s so stupid. Whenever we do Alliance digs, we always get access to the pertinent files.”

“Well...Shepard is a Spectre, so in her own words ‘They can’t stop me from giving my passcode to you.’” Liars shook her head, a bit rueful, “She’s going to get in trouble for that one day but for now…I’ll take advantage while I can.”

Morgan managed a chuckle but was still confused, “So, how’d you end up there? The Normandy I mean. It’s not exactly a uh...research vessel.”

Liara looked a little sheepishly into her own glass, “I got caught up in an old Prothean trap at a dig site. Of course, I had forged on without  _ any _ assistance and would have been stuck there for days if Shepard hadn’t come and released me.”

“What kind of trap?” Morgan’s mind began to whirl, “Because we’ve found some pretty interesting sorts of suspension gates that would stop anyone without the proper DNA sequence from entering an area in the Voyager Cluster.”

“I’d heard about that discovery. Thankfully this one could be rewired without having to fry the entire framework of the device like it did there.” Liara leaned in, eyes bright with excitement, “In fact our resident engineer, Tali, has been working on the scans from that device to amplify our own containment fields. It would act like a proper biotic field instead of just a magnetic field.”

Morgan couldn’t help the grin on her face. She wished that summoning her Omnitool in a salon wasn’t considered a social faux pas. She wanted to bring that data back to her own team-still working on that particular dig site. “That sounds  _ incredible. _ If you’re working with Alliance right now, do you think that the work your doing will be passed onto to R&D? I know some people who would  _ love _ to work on that.”

“I’ll make sure that our Engineering team actually passes the information on. We’ve been known to hoard our data, and be a little too insular on the Normandy.”

“Well, when you’re a breakthrough it’s hard to remember that the rest of the world exists.” Morgan waved her hand, “God knows my brother used to find me holed up in my room with my thesis research spread aaaaaaallll over the place.”

“Goodness!” Liara laughed a little, taking a small sip of her champagne, “I know that feeling all too well. Being on the crew of the Normandy has helped me...have a healthier work schedule.”

“You mean because they force you to join morning PT?” Morgan grinned. It was a common gripe of any borrowed researcher that came on an Alliance based research mission. They’d have to join the morning physical training session with the actual soldiers. Granted they weren’t doing half as much as the soldiers but...it was enough to cause people to complain. 

Not Morgan, of course, who’d grown up military and had kept fit with her brother all her life. But it was always a good laugh at the beginning of any trip.

“That and…” Liara’s eyes traveled to where Commander Shepard was telling a group of people an animated story. Her smile morphed into a small, fond thing, eyes softening. Morgan immediately felt like she was intruding on a moment, even an unknowing one. “Eliz-Commander Shepard has gone out of her way to make sure that I join in interpersonal activities with the crew, and with such a diverse crew...it’s been nice to feel like a part of something bigger. Like a family, in a way.”

“That must be nice.” The words, bitter and longing, slipped out of Morgan’s mouth before she could stop herself, and she immediately flushed. She ducked her head down towards her drink and prayed that her idol hadn’t heard that. She didn’t need to be let in on the Ryder family’s internal clusterfuck. 

“You’ll experience it one day, Miss Ryder.” Liara placed a hand on Morgan’s shoulder, and the pressure was calming enough that Morgan felt like she could make eye contact with her again. Liara’s smile was knowing, wise. “It might take a while, and it likely won’t be when you expect it but...Life has a way of surprising you. Friendship and love can run you over and then get you caught up in a fight for your life, sometimes rather literally.”

She laughed at the joke Morgan didn’t get before continuing, “The point is, life is messy and even if you think you won’t get the chance...you’ll find a family somewhere in the stars.”

“That some patented asari wisdom there, Dr. T’Soni?” Shepard has somehow ambled back over to them during Liara’s little speech, and slung an arm around her waist as casually as could be. The grin on her face was full of affection, even if her eyes were teasing. 

Liara rolled her eyes, “Hardly. I was merely imparting onto Miss Ryder here that life is full of the unexpected. Sometimes you just find yourself in the middle of a galaxy wide conspiracy and have to...how did you put it? ‘Roll with the punches’?”

Shepard barked out a laugh, shaking her head, “Yeah, that’s it. And you aren’t wrong.” Shepard turned her eyes to Morgan, and suddenly it was the Shepard from the vids. The way her shoulders set themselves, and the tilt to her chin. The somehow effortless confidence. Morgan wished, a little childishly, that some of that confidence could be absorbed through simply being next to her. She could feel the inspirational pep talk coming and for once she didn’t want to roll her eyes at it. 

As soon as Liara’s hand left Morgan’s shoulder, Shepard replaced it with a goodnatured pat of her arm. “Forgive me for being a little stereotypical, but you never know what’s around the corner. And something tells me that you’re going to do something great someday, Ryder."

Morgan didn’t care if it was an empty platitude that she’d heard a thousand times before-because hearing it come out of Shepard’s mouth actually made it sound  _ true. _ No one else had managed that before. She stood a little straighter, and managed to keep the giddy giggle that was threatening to escape from her throat restrained. Finally, she offered her hand out again.

“Thank you, Commander Shepard. That means a lot coming from you.”

“I’m sure you don’t hear it a lot, being a military brat. Everyone expects a lot of you when your parents are already Alliance, right?” Shepard grinned, firmly shaking Morgan’s hand before clasping it between both of her hands. “Don’t let everything your dad did get in the way of what you want to do.” Her eyes twinkled a little with mischief, “In fact, I’d say to go out of your way to do everything as opposite as your hardass of a father as you can.”

Morgan couldn’t help the loud laugh that burst from her lips at that. It was so rare someone was honest about her father with her. She squeezed Shepard’s hand and then brought her other hand to meet in the middle. 

“Well if Commander Shepard tells me to, how can I say no?”

“You can’t really. Comes with the whole war hero thing,” Shepard teased, letting Morgan’s hands go. She gave Morgan a wink, “We’ll let you sneak out now. We’ve kept you at this stuffy party for too long as it is.”

Morgan felt her shoulders sag a bit in relief at that. She let her eyes flit to the exit, only around 20 feet away. “Thank you. If I’m here any longer I might to crazy.” she nodded to Liara again as she started to back off, “Again, it was incredible to meet you, Dr. T’soni. And you too, Commander Shepard.”

Liara raised a hand in goodbye, a polite smile on her face as Morgan turned away and discreetly booked it for the doorway, heart pounding.

The moment Morgan felt the artificially cool air of the Presidium as she exited the building she lost her cool. Her hands went up into her hair, pushing her bangs back all the way, eyes wide. 

“I just met Liara T’Soni and she shook my hand. Holy shit _. _ ” She leaned against the nearest garden structure, suddenly unable to walk, “And Commander Shepard knows my  _ name _ ? Holy  _ shit. _ ” 

Morgan tilted her head back, peering around the other wings of the Citadel to stare out into the abyss of space. It was barely visible-the Citadel was made to seem as realistic a home as any colony-but the inky dark blues and blacks were comforting. Calming even in the face of meeting one’s heroes. 

She sucked in a deep breath, waiting for her legs to regain their motor skills before standing. Calling her Omnitool up she summoned a taxi and waited by the edge of the walkway for it to appear. She scrolled over to her contacts on the device and grinned. Leo’s name and photo were center screen as her taxi zoomed overhead and landed in front of her.

It would be cruel to tease him. He’d looked up to Shepard as long as she had Dr. T’Soni. 

And yet…

As she entered her taxi and got comfortable in her seat she twisted her finger in a circle in the air before pressing the call button on her Omnitool. 

It was only a moment or too before Leo picked up, his voice crackling over the connection with a sleepy yawn.

“What’s up, Morgan? It’s like...3 am here.”

Morgan grinned, twisting a piece of hair around her finger. 

She had about 15 minutes before her taxi dropped her back off at her apartment block. Plenty of time to ruin her twin’s night. 

“Oh nothing...Just that you’re gonna  _ hate _ that you missed this party.”

“Why?”

“Oh, just because I met Commander Shepard.”

There was a delicious silence from the other end before Morgan had to hold her Omnitool away from her face as Leo seemed to scream in anguish. 

All she could do was laugh in response. Turnabout was fair play after all. 


End file.
